Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Phantom Tollbooth: Life Lessons

     The Phantom Tollbooth is filled with life lessons and author's intrusions, a little like charlotte's web. in fact the whole book is like one giant author's intrusion, disguised under a veil of interesting characters and a magical quest.
      For instance look at the forest of sight. (heh). Anyway, if you examine the cities of illusions and reality you can see a very important life lessons. the city of reality disappeared because no one payed attentions to it and went around staring at the ground walking as fast as possible. the life lesson is that you must stop once in a while to pay attention to your surroundings. otherwise it will be like they don't exist. ( i found out that at the time Norton Juster was living in Brooklyn at the time and may have been inspired by the way people act in new york city, a little like EB White)
     Another example is the Which's tail and Azaz's cabinet. the Which used to advise on how many words to use, but became miserly and used too few and ended up in the dungeon. the cabinet use too many, and are annoying and get screamed at. Juster's telling us to treat words with moderation and use just enough to get the job done.
     Many children's books such as the phantom tollbooth and charlotte's web teach kids little life lessons. great author's like teaching children and want to impart some life lessons on them.
  

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